You’ve probably heard about him before. He has been in the news, taught to students in
crime classes, and there is even a new Netflix series about him and what he has done. Ted Bundy
was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, burglar, and necrophile who assaulted and
murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s.
Bundy tried to gain the trust of women by impersonation. Whether it was pretending to
be an authority figure, or having an injury. He made a case which he presented himself as a nice
and caring man. Before his victims realized his real intentions, it was too late. He would control
them and take advantage of them in secluded places. Ted had confessed to 30 homicides between
seven states. There is no proof, but that number could be higher. He decapitated at least 12 of his
victims and kept pieces of heads as a “trophy”. The majority of his victims were in their late
teens to mid-twenties. Even so, there were cases of girls who were not yet teenagers.
The first time Ted Bundy got put in jail was in 1975 for aggravated kidnapping and
attempted criminal assault. That charge led to him to become a suspect in a long list of unsolved
homicides. When he faced murder charges in Colorado he designed two escapes where he then
committed further assaults, including three murders before he got put into a Florida jail in 1978.
He received three death sentences in two different trials for the homicides he committed in
Florida. He was executed by the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989. While
on death row, Bundy agreed to speak extensively with journalist Stephen Michaud, in exchange
for his cases being reopened; Bundy said he wanted to prove his innocence.
Since a lot of the cases were unsolved it became such a great mystery to the world on the
real number of Bundy’s victims. Netflix paid $9 million to get rights to Zac Efron in the Ted
Bundy movie. The movie comes shortly after the premiere of Conversations with a Killer,
Netflix’s four-part Bundy mini-series. This series brings the killer to life by showing archival
interviews with Bundy while he was in prison. In addition to incorporating Bundy’s prison
interviews, the filmmakers talked to journalists, detectives, Bundy’s friends, attorneys, and even
one of the survivors to give the audience a taste of who he really was.
At Pennridge High School, a criminology course is offered where students can learn
about crime. One student, Sydney Borneman, who takes the class this year said, “This course

definitely enhanced my interest in serial killers. I find myself watching more investigative shows
such as CSI and SVU.” She watched the Netflix series and thought it was very interesting and it
went more in depth than what they did in class. If you like investigating take criminology with
Mr. Murphy and learn about more people like Ted Bundy. Mr. Murphy said, “For students who
enjoy problem solving, the depravity of man and trying to understand why people do the things
they do then you should take this class. Criminology is not an easy course but it is an interesting
one.”